Bronxville Insider: Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin Weekly Column.

 

Bronxville Insider: Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin: Mayor's Column Week of September 30, 2024.

Mayor’s Column - October 1, 2024.

As summer comes to an official end, the Trustees and I would like to thank our

community partners from the Bronxville Beautification Council who made the

Village so beautiful this summer by nurturing flowers in more than a dozen

locations throughout the Village. Their efforts were in coordination with our small

but mighty Public Works Department who are unsung heroes.

The Department of Public Works consists of two divisions - Sanitation and Highway.

The total team has six employees dedicated to sanitation – not an easy task indeed,

leaving the remaining seven gentlemen to maintain all of our streets, parks

and their infrastructure. This includes the grounds at Village Hall, the Library, the

recently restored Maltby Park, Sagamore Park, Dogwood Park at the tennis courts

and almost a dozen islands throughout the Village.

And as I write, the Working Gardeners are making plans to restore Dogwood Park

to fittingly deserve its name by planting six dogwoods along the walkway to the

tennis hut. This is another 50/50 landscape partnership with the Village which is

proving essential to keeping taxes at bay. We have the same incredible relationship

with our two other garden clubs; Boulder Ledge and the Bronxville Beautification

Council who work collaboratively on every beautiful thing you see in the downtown

area.

As icing on the cake, thanks to our enduring partnership with the Bronxville

Historical Conservancy, the three pairs of historic pillars at the entryway to

Lawrence Park received a much needed restoration and just nearby, the Hilltop

Association purchased personalized and lighted trash receptacles at heavily

traveled locations throughout the Hilltop that are now maintained by our DPW

team.

Again, in another enduring partnership, the Village and the Junior League are

collecting “Thanksgiving Sides” from November 6 th to November 13 th at Village Hall.

The items will be delivered to Beulah Church in Mount Vernon for distribution with

the annual turkey distribution in conjunction with Feeding Westchester. Needed

items for donation include instant mashed potatoes, canned sweet potatoes,

stuffing mix and juice in non-glass containers.

In other more routine initiatives throughout the Village, the DPW has been

working on paving/curbing modifications throughout the Village to keep water

along the edge of roadways and redirected to storm drains.

In addition to these modifications, the Village began a project in late summer

that continues into the fall of lining our sanitary sewers and rehabilitating old

manholes to reduce the likelihood of stormwater entering the sanitary sewer

systems, thus eliminating sewage backups.

Over the summer months, our outdoor municipal lights have been converted to

LEDs and additional lighting conversions are currently happening at the Library

and Village Hall. Not only does this save us thousands of dollars, but it helps the

Village to continue in a state program which will qualify us for reimbursement

for many of our Eco goals, which result in savings to our taxpayers.

The Hudson Valley Regional Council of the Department of Environmental

Conservation awarded Bronxville a Momentum Award for achieving notable

milestones in a remarkably brief timeframe. Specifically, Bronxville was

recognized for passing a Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations and an

Energy Audit of our municipal buildings. Thanks goes to our hardworking Climate

Smart Communities Task Force: Assistant Village Administrator Stephen Shallo,

Trustee Helen Knapp, Ellen Edwards, Chair of the Green Committee and Carole

Upshur who wrote the Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations and has

made invaluable contributions in all areas of our green work.

The Village is launching a new website and switching to a new vendor for more

efficient mass email notification in January as well as a complimentary outlay for

the upgrade of our existing cable system.

Our leaf collecting begins mid-month continuing until early December. Almost

incredulous, our annual leaf removal costs regularly top $100k per season and

this does not include the additional cost of repairing clogged drains as

rainstorms routinely send the leaves directly into our storm sewer system.

Drains clogged with leaves also vastly increase the risk of localized flooding. To

help the Village, both on the financial and ecological fronts, we ask that you

either bag your leaves or if not possible, keep them on your property and off the

Village streets and right of way. Based on our extensive drain-cleaning program

undertaken over the summer, it was quite clear that drain capacity was inhibited

by a proliferation of leaves that went directly into our system. Not only do the

leaves affect our water conveyance but as they begin to decay on the streets,

harmful phosphates and nitrates are released eventually ending up in the Bronx

River, further polluting those waters. The same leaf piles are also a significant

traffic hazard as they are often placed on narrow roadways creating slippery

road surfaces.

The fall also signals the return of all the children to our Village for school and

play. In order to increase the safety of all those now walking about the Village,

our Village-wide speed limit is 25 mph, the lowest allowed by New York State.

The only exemption is the 20 mph permitted in marked school zones. Any

further speed reduction requires New York State legislation which must be

predicated on documented evidence of accident rates, speeding data and traffic

volume, something the Village cannot demonstrate. Despite repeated requests

from residents, the Village cannot install “Children at Play” or “Slow Children”

signs because State and Federal standards reject their use as they openly

suggest that playing in the street is acceptable and give children a false sense of

security.

Finally, our Eastchester Fire District Budget Hearing is scheduled for 6pm on

October 16th at Fire Headquarters at 255 Main Street, Eastchester. The proposed

2025 budget of $23,872,423 is a 14.41% raise over the 2024 budget of

$20,866,263.